The End Is Where We Begin
by rkocena54
Summary: Rachel Berry planned her's and Finn's 2 month anniversary dinner down to the last detail. Ironically, it was what she didn't plan that ended up being the most important part. And Rachel Berry hates irony. Oneshot, set after Regionals, before season 2.


Rachel Berry and Finn Hudson weren't a conventional couple. Just ask anyone who had seen them planning their dates on what could only be described as a creepy cat calendar, or practicing their harmonies together. But, they were a cliché. A strange one at that, but a cliché nonetheless. It was the typical story of the unpopular girl and the popular boy who had the popular girlfriend who fell in love despite all the obstacles.

So on the night of their two month anniversary, the cliché couple decided to go on a cliché date to Breadstix. Breadstix was pretty much the only restaurant in Lima, unless you liked nose hair in your spaghetti. So it was the obvious choice for Finn when Rachel had let him to pick a place for their special date.

Rachel had planned all other details perfectly, right down to the amount of kissing she'd allow him to do in her room when he took her home (22 seconds, if he made it that long without... you know...) before sending him on his way. She'd planned the table they'd be sitting at, the meals they would order, and the outfit Finn would wear. She'd even accounted for ten extra minutes of driving time, because Finn hadn't been driving long and had a tendency to get lost.

Needless to say, Rachel Berry wasn't a spontaneous person. She liked to have a plan.

Ironically (and you know how much Rachel hates irony), what she hadn't planned turned out to be the most important part of their date. But I'll get to that soon enough.

Even the weather hadn't dared to disagree with Rachel that night, and as Finn escorted her to the car there was just the right amount of wind blowing the exact right direction, not enough to blow up her dress but enough to make her hair blow behind her like she was in a music video.

"On my own, pretending he's beside me-"

Rachel figured Finn obviously didn't approve of her singing by the way he stopped halfway through doing up his seat belt. The fact that it was so loud Mr. Dodds from across the street had stopped putting his trash out to stare probably didn't help.

"Rachel, can you... not sing? It just makes me a little uncomfortable, and when you do that hand thing and try to get me to sing along too..."

"Oh. Of course."

Aside from the gentle rain that had started outside, the car ride to Breadstix was painfully silent, between Rachel biting her tongue to keep from singing along to the radio, and Finn not knowing what to say because usually Rachel just talked and he listened.

Once they arrived, Finn held the door open for Rachel like the gentleman he was and lowered his head in what can only be described as quiet shame as she strutted into Breadstix, hand on hip and head held high like she was waiting for the whole restaurant to burst into applause. They didn't, needless to say. Finn kept his head down as he followed Rachel's path, but he only made it halfway to their table before he ran into the back of her and almost knocked her clean off her feet.

"Sorry Rach" He mumbled, steadying himself. He finally looked up to see what the hold up was, and his gaze immediately fell upon a pair of big, blue eyes staring back at him.

"Quinn." He stuttered, still not looking away. He couldn't, her eyes were freakin' hypnotic to him. "What are you doing here?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, quizzical, insulting, demeaning… God he missed that. "I'm on a date… With Puck"

It wasn't until she said those words that Finn actually noticed his ex-bestfriend sitting on the other side of the booth, he too staring at Finn like he had three heads.

"Oh, hey Puck" His voice trailed off as he awkwardly raised his hand in greeting before shoving it back in his pocket.

Rachel just looked confused.

"Um, Finn, we have to go be seated at our table now, but it was lovely seeing you two" Rachel forced a smile and linked her arm through Finn's, attempting to pull him away, but Finn's eyes were fixated on Quinn, his feet glued to the ground and his heart beating out of his chest. He didn't know why; Logic had left him long before this point. All he knew was she looked more beautiful than ever, and he could only imagine it was because she wasn't his anymore.

"Finn" Rachel's voice was more forceful this time, and Finn couldn't ignore the way her nails were digging into his arm.

"Um, I'm gonna… You look, healthy" Finn mumbled awkwardly to Quinn, whose face had now softened.

Finn turned away, hoping to whatever higher power there was that his and Rachel's table was far away from Quinn and Puck's. But, life doesn't work that way, and fate had Finn and Rachel seated right across from Quinn and Puck. So close, in fact, that Finn could smell Quinn's perfume. It was intoxicating, and all of a sudden he was like an ex-junkie getting a taste of their drug again. It filled his lungs, pulled at his heart strings, messed with his mind. It was Quinn, and he wanted more.

"So… Nice weather out, huh?" Finn smiled at Puck once he summoned the strength to look away from Quinn.

"Not really. I hate the rain." Puck grumbled, twirling a strand of spaghetti around his fork with one hand and holding his head up with the other.

"I love it" Quinn commented to fill the silence that had spread over the two tables following Puck's blunt comment.

"I know. I remember that one time you were practicing a Cheerios routine in my backyard when it was like monsoon weather. You wouldn't come inside-"

"So you came out and joined me in the rain" Quinn finished, laughing as she looked down at her lap. "As if you weren't uncoordinated enough, you slipped in that mud puddle right in the middle of a cartwheel"

"I don't think I've ever laughed that hard in my life" Finn chuckled.

An unmistakably awkward silence filled the tables, and the only person who didn't notice was Finn, who was too blissfully caught up in the feeling of reminiscent joy to notice. He snapped back to reality when Rachel stamped on his foot under the table and shot him an angry look. Quinn noticed it, and thought it would be best to leave them alone for now.

Only a few minutes of conversation between Finn and Rachel passed before Finn made the mistake of accidentally called her bossy. The moment was only made worse for Finn when he heard a giggle coming from the next table. It wasn't until he saw Puck texting on his cell phone that Finn noticed Quinn must've been laughing at him and Rachel. Finn looked over at her and his heart leapt into his throat when they shared a small smile.

This was the moment Finn remembered what it felt like to be in love with Quinn Fabray.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to—Sorry" Quinn mumbled with a polite nod in Rachel's direction. Before her gaze returned to her lap, she looked at Finn, and the mischievous smile she shot him was met with a wink that made her heart do something she was sure wasn't medically safe.

The waiter arrived, in perfect timing to save Finn's ass from a death stare, and gave Rachel and Finn their drinks; Rachel a sparkling water, and Finn a grape soda. Rachel thanked the waiter, but Finn stared at his glass skeptically, his hands not moving from his lap.

"I didn't ask for ice" He commented, a slightly rude tone to his voice, as if knowing Finn didn't want ice in his drink was commonplace for the waiter. Quinn giggled uncontrollably again from the next table, so much so that a small squeak escaped her as she wiped a tear from her eye. Finn noticed and shifted his skeptical glare in her direction.

"What is it?"

"You don't remember when your crusade against ice started do you?" She smiled, her giggles dying down as she brushed a strand of hair from her face.

Finn looked confused for a moment, but his face soon softened as the memories he had tried to suppress came flooding back to him. His kitchen, lime cordial, a hot summer day, Quinn in her bikini…

Finn smiled warmly as Quinn refreshed his memory for him, "You put ice in your glass of cordial that one day when I was at your house and you found a dead fly frozen in it"

Her laughter was nothing short of adorable.

"My mom hasn't let me refill the ice cube trays since" Finn commented through his laughter.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom" Finn barely even heard Rachel's words; he'd learnt to block out the sound of her voice after about a week of them dating. Besides, he was too focused on the blonde sitting diagonal to him, her smile not the teeth-baring atrocity he was used to with his current girlfriend, but the warm grin he'd had no idea he'd missed so much until that moment.

"Was that the day you totally vaporized me your first time playing Call of Duty?"

"No, _that _was the day you spilled Mac and Cheese on your bed sheets and we tried to wash them, but you turned them pink."

"I still don't get how that happened"

"You are such a moron" Quinn replied, but it wasn't the degrading insult he was used to from her. This time it came with friendly laughter. She just meant it as a joke, and it brought a warm smile to Finn's lips.

20 more minutes had come and gone, as had Finn's dinner, and they were still laughing and joking, forgetting all the hard times and the fights and the cheating, pretending, even if just for a moment, that their relationship had been perfect. Because to Finn, it had been. Looking back at that moment, he couldn't remember all the flaws. All he remembered was how much he had loved the girl sitting across from him.

"Rachel's been in the bathroom for a while… I hope she's okay" Finn frowned, his concerned not at all feigned for once. His mom had told him a person couldn't actually fall into the toilet, but he still wasn't convinced.

"Finn, I don't think she's in the bathroom. Her coat's gone. And so are your car keys" Quinn shot him an apologetic look.

"Did I screw up my date with Rachel so much that she didn't even wanna make a dramatic exit?"

"I think so"

Finn sighed and flopped back in the booth he was seated at, the leather of the seat making the 'poof' sound he always enjoyed so much.

"I think she left around the same time Puck did." Quinn glanced at the empty seat across from her, and it punched Finn in the gut how selfish he'd been for not noticing that Puck had bailed before Quinn even started dessert.

Even as she bit her lip and looked down self-consciously, she looked so beautiful. Finn had thought about getting back together with her in his mind most nights since they broke up. It happened a different way every time, and every night, just before he fell asleep, he realized how improbable it was to think about.

What did he expect, for her to just sit there in all her blonde angelic glory and utter the words-

"Finn, I still have feelings for you"

Lower herself to the level of groveling to the boy who broke her heart and had since moved on to her arch enemy? No, Quinn Fabray was too good for that. She had too much grace.

Of course, it wasn't until that moment, his head filled with bitter thoughts and resignations that he no longer deserved to be loved by Quinn, that he realized she had actually spoken the words he had thought far too implausible.

"Say something, please" Her eyes pleaded with him, and a small nervous laugh escaped her. She couldn't believe she had actually just said that out loud. But without Finn, she was miserable, incomplete mess, and she was tired of hiding it.

"Quinn…" He wanted to take her hand and tell her it was going to be okay, but he couldn't. He felt his face turn into a skeptic frown, and he couldn't stop it. He felt his fists clench and his eyes narrow beyond his control.

"Quinn, I'm with Rachel"

With his words, the most horrible feeling rushed through Quinn's body. Her arms, her legs, her mind, everything just froze. Her jaw clenched and her soul felt as if it was trying to escape. She felt every chance she had of happiness leave. She tried to stop it, but she couldn't. She was frozen.

"Do me a favor, Quinn – Stay out of my life." His words pierced through Quinn's trance, awakening her to the horrifying reality she'd prayed was just a nightmare. Finn stood up from the table, and the look he shot Quinn before he turned around to leave was far from a plea for her to follow him, but she didn't care. She did it anyway. What they had, what she felt for him, was too precious and rare and good to not chase after. Screw heartbreak, screw fear, screw Rachel and Puck and everything else that was standing in her way. Quinn needed to do this. She needed _him. _

The cold outside shocked Finn's emotions back into order and he began to cry as he walked away. He would have to walk home, but he didn't mind. He probably wouldn't even end up going home. He wasn't sure where he wanted to go, but he just needed to get away.

"Finn, come back!" Finn could just make out the sound of her voice being drowned out by the rain. "Finn!"

She ran after him, the rain saturating her pristine white dress and pink cardigan, filling her shoes and flattening her golden curls. She was a mess, in every definition the word, but the most beautiful mess he'd ever seen.

"Please Finn" Tears filled her eyes, but through her blurred vision she could see the large dark blue shape in front of her turn around quickly and take a few steps closer to her.

"You can't do this Quinn!" Finn screamed, trying to make himself heard over the rain. "You can't come here with Puck when I'm finally happy with Rachel and get all up in my head and tell me you still have feelings for me and you want to be with me again! You can't do that to me Quinn!"

"Why not?" She sobbed, tears mixing with the rain on her face and no doubt making her mascara run. The last time Finn saw her cry he was breaking up with her, and Quinn couldn't deny the feeling that something similar was about to happen.

"Because!" Finn replied, chest heaving, emotions boiling inside him. "Because I love you!"

There was a brief moment after those words left his mouth that Quinn stopped crying, Finn stopped breathing and the rest of the world appeared to stop moving. Their eyes connected.

And then she ran at him, jumped into his arms and pressed her lips to his with such passion that it nearly knocked him clean over. It was so perfect that Finn didn't even try and feel Quinn's ass, he just held her around the waist so tightly his arms hurt. Their kiss was different, but better than any memory. It was something straight out of a movie, and that's how he knew, it was meant to happen this way. That everything that had happened up to that point, the pregnancy and Rachel and Puck and their break up, and every instinct to the contrary had been nothing more than a denial of the fact that Finn was now, and would always be, in love with Quinn Fabray.

Minutes, hours, days, he wasn't sure how long it was, but Quinn eventually pulled away, and looked up at him with the big eyes that had the ability to stare right into his soul, and Finn smiled. This, he thought, is how it feels to look into the eyes of the person you can't deny, no matter how long or how hard you've tried.


End file.
